Sara Getting and Karin Swainey have become heroes in the world of education. They did this by giving iPads to first graders. It was something new that they wanted to try in order to see if it would help improve reading with at-risk first graders. After they succeeded in this, they spread it on to the rest of the students. One of the units that they wanted to focus on with the first graders was recognizing sight words. They stated that, “We then set about putting appropriate interventions in place to measurably improve scores in sight word recognition…” (Getting 25). After working with the first graders and giving them appropriate Time on Task activities, she succeeded in using technology in the elementary classroom. The data that was recorded showed that the students had received high scores on multiple different assessments, with a for exceptions.

While teaching sight words is important and we want the students to be able to do it independently, teachers first need to model to the students how to use these sight word apps. This way, the students will be getting everything out of the application. So many different teachers have turned to iPads to teach. Instead of always reading a print book, there are loads of online books that can be accessed through the iPad or iPhone. One researcher said, “…the iPad may help teachers meet traditional print-based literacy goals while also providing students with opportunities to learn the new literacies of 21st-century technologies by responding to texts in unique ways” (Hutchinson 16). Some of the apps that can be used for reading improvement include “Fry Sight Words”, “Blackboard Sight Words Games HD Free Lite,” and “Read Me Stories.”

While a lot of apps are really helpful for improving reading, there aren’t nearly as many for actually creating words and learning how to write. These apps are just as important. While students are learning vocabulary and how to pronounce words, it’s really important that they know how to spell and write these words. This is where the letter identification apps come from. One of these apps is called “iWrite Words”. Laura Northrop says, “[In this app, students can] trace upper and lowercase letters and simple…words” (535). Not only does this save on paper, but it teaches students the correct way to shape and form letters and words.

Along with learning how to better read and write words, learning to speak these same words is equally important. Technology has come so far that it’s getting progressively easier for students to learn how to pronounce words correctly. Teachers can now use communication and voice apps to help students in this area. One researcher described this technique by saying, “For interactive communication lessons, we recorded students reading a selection with the Voice Memos app, then swapped iPads to listen and follow along as a peer read” (Getting 25). Recording students reading is an easy way to grade the students as well. It’s also a great way to get the students to work collaboratively.

After reading these researchers' findings, I really only had one main research question: Are these educational mobile applications beneficial to younger literacy learners? I did a lot of research online about whether or not other people and/or teachers found that these apps were, in fact, educational and beneficial. For my specific experiment, I did a short survey. I emailed this survey to my fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, and encouraged all of my brothers to take the survey. The survey was mostly qualitative because I wasn’t trying to find statistics. I wanted opinions and reasoning. The results of my survey can be found at the end of this case study.

After I created the survey, I started looking for a pre-test for my two third graders to take. I first started with the Dolch Third Grade Sight Words. For this certain sight word test, they had three seconds to correctly say a word that came across the screen. They both passed the test with flying colors. After this, I switched it up a little and made the pre-test harder. I found the Dolch Fifth Grade Sight Words. It has 258 words in all. I wanted to test every word, orally. The third grader from North Carolina missed 22 words. I figured this was okay since it could still show development. During this time, I had chosen three different apps I wanted them to practice at least 30 to 45 minutes every night. The other participant from Virginia missed 26 words. I was pleased that they missed words because this gave a chance for my experiment to work. They could show signs of improvement when I give my post-test. Their parents had to agree to help with this. They have two weeks to play three certain apps that I had chosen for them to play. After this time, I will post-test using the same test as before. After playing these apps for two weeks, along with the help of their parents, I post-tested the students. I used the same list as before and applied the same rules. The young boy from North Carolina only missed 5 words, and the young boy from Virginia missed only 2. I was very impressed with the participants. They worked beautifully and proved my hypothesis to be true.

For my experiment, I used two third grade males. One is from North Carolina, the other boy is from Virginia. I selected them because I needed to use early literacy learners for this experiment, and I didn’t really know a lot of younger readers. I knew my two third graders could read, but they could always become better readers. They were very good representations of their group; for example, both of them read above a third-grade reading level, so I had to make the experiment harder for them. I had to talk to their parents before, and both were in equal agreement that I could do this experiment with them. I had problems with pre-testing. For example, I used the parents to help me in this since I couldn’t be there with the child. The child from North Carolina I pre-tested myself, therefore, there would be no way for the results to be skewed.

I wanted the survey to be as clear and concise as possible. I also didn’t want parents to take my survey, because the results might have been a little biased based on the fact that,� if their children had tried some app and it didn’t work for them, they would have given my research bad reviews. I was trying to avoid that at all cost. I knew I could get future potential teachers to take my survey, and they would really give me their true and honest opinion on the topic.

The apps that I found for them to play were fun and educational. The first app is called “Sight Words Learning Games and Flash Cards for Reading and Spelling Success.” I really liked this app, because players could choose which grade they wanted to play. It includes 6 educational sight words games, and it’s very colorful and playful in a� way that helps students learn. The company who made this game is CFC s.r.o. and it has very high customer reviews. The second app I chose was “Fry Words.” This app is customizable for each student because you can add different words on there that students are having trouble with. It also has over 1,000 different sight words that can be tested using flash cards. The company who made this app is Innovative Mobile Apps Ltd. The customer reviews were very high for this app as well. The third and final app I chose for my participants to play was “Sight Words: Kids Learn.” Now this app was a little easy for my participants, but they still had fun with it. In this app, you can actually write the words that are given to you. This app was created by Teacher Created Materials, and the customer reviews were also high. All of these apps were free to use. If you wanted to increase the difficulty, however, you had to pay.

I collected my data in Google Forms from my survey. I emailed out my survey to my fraternity, and this email can be found at the end of this case study. I didn’t share my survey on Facebook because I felt like I had enough responses from my email that I didn’t need to put my survey on Facebook. I nicely asked people to help me in completing my research project, and it was up to them whether or not they chose to take it. When it came to pre-testing and post-testing my students, I completed all of the data and kept it in a folder specifically for this project. When I pre-tested them, I actually printed out the list of words and highlighted the words they got wrong. This is how I collected data on my pre-test.

I looked at some of the responses from my survey and put them into charts. It was pretty simple to analyze once I had put it into these charts. Many people did decide that these educational apps can be useful to early literacy learners, but some did not agree. Of the ones that didn’t agree, none were pre-service teachers.

I was limited in my experiment because I couldn’t be with the students when they were playing the apps. I wanted to be able to watch and observe my students throughout the entire study because I didn’t want any false information. This experiment would be very easy for others to duplicate. It will be hard, however, to find two of the same students. They need to have the same reading level and be in the same grade. I do feel my research was reliable. It may not be as valid as I want it, just because I couldn’t be with the participants the entire time during the study.

Timeline.

September 2015: I chose my topic.

October 2, 2015: Preliminary research with the librarian.

October 21, 2015: I found multiple sources.

October 30, 2015: I pick which age group to do my study on and I also found the pre-test.

November 7, 2015: I pre-tested one student. A parent pre-tested the other.

November 21-December 5: Students played three different apps.

December 5 2015: I post-test the students.